Monday, January 16, 2017

JP Rifles has done it again with their SuperMatch .22LR barrel kit delivering us something better than anything else on the market. A few years ago I wrote a few articles centered around building highly accurate and reliable dedicated .22LR AR15 uppers. At that time the most accurate option on the market was combining CMMG’s .22LR bolt and barrel collar with a Beyer Match 22LR barrel. That combo would easily deliver .25” 5-yard groups which is impressive. Nordic Components did also have a great match grade upper however sadly it was not made for very long at all. I was ecstatic to be able to work up a build with JP Rifles new .22LR barrel kit offering, because everything else from JP rifles I have testing has been best in class.

JP Rifles has already made a name for itself in the 3Gun and competition shooting world as a company who continually delivers arguably the most accurate production AR based rifles available anywhere. Luckily for the builders, they also sell all those great parts including their new JP Rifles .22 SuperMatch Barrel Kit.

For those who skip ahead, I will tell you that this is the single most accurate .22LR AR15 I have every shot and close to those most accurate .22LR of any type I have ever shot. I have close to a dozen of super tricked out $1000+ Ruger 10/22’s which will deliver single hole 50-yard groups, but as it turns so will the AR15 JP Rifles SuperMatch kit. Most people do not think of the AR15 as a precision .22LR platform, however I was shocked, stunned and amazed with the capabilities of this precision dedicated .22LR AR15 upper build.

A dust cover can be added as an option. Of note, the charging handle and dust covers are proprietary to the JP .22LR bolt design and are not reverse compatible with AR15 spec versions or the other way around.

As I found out, my super cool Strike Industries dust cover would not work with JP’s proprietary bolt design. Plan on springing for the very inexpensive $8.99 JP dust cover if you need it. With the kit, all that is needed from the builder is an AR15 upper and free-float handguard plus optics to complete the build.

THE BUILD

My build started with the JP .22LR barrel kit, and a Aero Precision upper. The Aero Precision upper was lapped with a Brownells Upper Receiver Lapping tool just to squeeze every bit of accuracy from the build. An ALG handguard was used along with an Aero Precision optic mount and Nikon 2-7 P-22 scope. This build represents my favorite AR15 and .22 build parts. The Aero Precision receivers and mounts have been incredibly high quality through dozens of builds. The Nikon 2-7 P-22 is by far my favorite 22LR optic which offers outstanding clarity, the perfect useable 2-7 magnification range for the 22LR round, and is offered with either a BDC reticle or BDC turret. The ALG handguards are light, supremely comfortable, and an outstanding value for the quality. For the lower receiver build, I used an Aero Precision Ambi-Lower, Hiperfire 24E trigger, and Mako stock.

PERFORMANCE

The performance was stunning. My initial sight-in was with “standard grade” CCI SV ammo and I was less than overwhelmed with most 50-yard groups coming in at .5”, but is did manage a couple .4” groups with the CCI SV ammo. Then I started working through my stash of Lapua ammo and magic began to occur. One of my first Lapua groups was this center-to-center .12” 50-yard 5 shot group with Lapua Center-X match ammo and it actually got better from there. I had a couple groups which were unmeasurably single hole. This JP Rifle setup is freaking incredible. If you want the most accurate AR15 dedicated upper, the JP .22 Kit is it.

Another really amazing benefits of the JP 22 AR build was the reliability. I has zero reliability issues until I moved over to what I term a budget plinking ammo. Then I saw the occasional Failure to Fire at the same ratio as I would expect form a highly reliably Ruger 10/22. The CMMG based builds are reliable, but not to this degree that the JP bolt and barrel deliver. JP has obviously done its homework to assure both exceptional accuracy and reliability.

FINAL THOUGHTS

OK so nothing from JP rifles is inexpensive, but I would argue this is one of the better deals from JP considering a $450 price tag. A premium Beyer AR15 barrel and CMMG bolt and barrel collar will easily set you back the same price and still will not deliver what this JP kit does. This is one of the best shooting .22LR rifles you can buy. Notably the JP SuperMatch 22 kit delivers exceptional precision competition accuracy, but also delivers an incredible training tool for your AR15. Based on the price of .22 rimfire ammo compared to .223 rounds, the cost of this build will pay for itself in just under 1500 rounds. Yes… you need this.

SPECS

The same components we use for our .22 LR conversions, this bundle includes everything required for your own custom rimfire build: